Bev Katz Rosenbaum

Hi Bev! Thanks for doing the interview. Could you start by introducing yourself?

Sure. I'm a former fiction and magazine publisher who started writing young adult novels when I fell in love with the stuff my kids were reading!

Your newest novel is I Was a Teenage Popsicle (gotta love the title!). Could you tell us a little about the book and your inspiration for it?

Popsicle is about the first cryonically preserved human being, a California teen named Floe Ryan. She comes back to find that her whole world has changed, and that she's the ward of her younger, now older sister. (Payback's a beyotch!) How did the book come about? Well, I wanted to come up with an idea I hadn't seen explored before in YA, and when the baseball player Ted Williams died and his family started fighting about his will (he said in the will that he wanted to be cryonically preserved), I had a little 'Aha!' moment. (Well, actually, my husband and some friends had the 'aha' moment--then I wrote the thing!) As soon as I knew my YA was going to be a cryonics story, I also knew it was going to be a crazy mix of sci-fi, action-adventure, and teen chick lit.

If I Was a Teenage Popsicle were to be adapted into a film in the next year or so, who would you like to see play the lead characters?

I actually had a casting contest on my myspace blog a while back, and the winner suggested Amber Tamblyn as Floe. She's perfect, personality and looks wise, but is probably getting a little long in the tooth to play a teen! I also like Jojo for Floe. We had some great suggestions for Taz Taber, the love interest, too, but personally, I would like to find a slightly younger version of Milo Ventimiglia!

In I Was a Teenage Popsicle, there is a lot of controversy regarding freezing people. If cryonics were an option and you had an incurable disease, would you choose to be frozen?

I don't think so. I'm not opposed to it, I just don't have that extreme adventurer gene! I think I'd hate waking up in some strange future world with no family or friends. And right now, even though there are cryonics facilities, the technology is nowhere near where it has to be to make cryonics workable. Right now, for example, they can only freeze heads; whole bodies can't be frozen. (In my novel, I took a bit of artistic license, created some new chemicals to ensure cells wouldn't freeze and decompose!) I like the idea of people reading this book and discussing about the pros and cons of all this high-tech, life-prolonging stuff. Talking about cryonics can serve as a jumping-off point to talking about, say, cloning or stem cell research...

I was about to ask if you would consider a sequel for I Was a Teenage Popsicle, then noticed on your myspace that the sequel, Beyond Cool, will be out in August, 2007. Could you tell us a little about the sequel?

I really wasn't ready to leave these characters yet, so I wrote a sequel when I was done with Popsicle. I thought it would be interesting to explore how, when Floe finally gets back to her beloved Venice, California after living in the Valley for a year with her sister (fun times--not!), she finds that she romanticized it somewhat, and also that she can no longer be considered, ahem, cool, at Venice Beach Alternative School.

Other than Beyond Cool, are you working on any other YA novels at the moment?

I'm working on a couple of other light paranormal YA novels. One is called Retest, about a teen who is reliving the same day over and over. (And I started working on it BEFORE I heard about the TV show Daybreak!) I'm also working on a project geared to tweens, set at a school for the arts. Neither are contracted or scheduled yet, though! (Hopefully they will be soon!)

When did you decide you wanted to be an author? Has it been a lifelong dream?

Not really--I never thought writing could be a viable career, so I worked in publishing as an editor, gradually gaining the courage to go for the full-time writing career!

You completed an Honors English degree at the University of Toronto. Do you think studying English should be a top priority for aspiring writers?

I loved reading all the great poems, plays and novels, and whether you read them in school or on your own, reading them should definitely be a top priority. Writing courses are also very helpful, though I don't think a creative writing degree is a necessity. (Some of those courses discourage genre writing, and teach a very specific kind of writing.)

What were some of your favorite novels when you were a teenager and what are some of your favorites today?

Well, there were all the standards: Little Women, the Judy Blume books, the Nancy Drew series. Plus all the big dramatic issue books like Lisa, Bright and Dark and Go Ask Alice. Modern faves include thoughtful chick lit--anything by Jennifer Weiner or Emily Geffin--as well as teen lit by Meg Cabot or Louise Rennison. I still love everything by Jane Austen, and I also have a weakness for great memoirs like Jennifer Traig's Devil in the Details.

Since starting your career as an author, what would you say are some of the most important lessons you've learned?

Well, patience is your best friend as an author. The publishing industry moves at a glacial pace--tough to deal with when you're raring to go! You just can't sit around while you're waiting to hear from an agent or editor. You have to develop other projects so you don't waste months in wait mode! Also, perseverance is key. Even published authors get projects rejected--it's so important for unpubbeds to know this!

What advice would you like to offer aspiring writers!

Go to medical school! Seriously, I would like to say (again) don't get discouraged. Writing is a craft and with practice, you can only get better, so hang in there!

Bev Katz Rosenbaum's Novels at Amazon.com